The worst offenders (in terms of quest objectives) for this IMO are the AA guns and rebel supplies (ammo stores, fuel dumps, etc) on Balmorra (Empire version). They take ages to respawn and you will absolutely be ninja'd for these without fail during peak server times.

I've found the practice sporadic on the republic side. Some do it but it isn’t that prevalent. On the empire side, it seems to be worse to me. Just on Dromund Kaas and already I’ve been snaked at least ten times for plant scans for bioanalysis. I’ve seen them standing there just out of range of the creature; I wait to see if they are going to attack. No movement, so I go to kill the creature. As soon as I attack they run up and scan the plant. I even had one try to scan the creature that I had just killed. Thankfully I don’t think the game allows that. I’m pretty sure they are doing this on purpose as they usually do not have a companion at the time. Most likely the companion is off doing Biochem leaving them to collect.

I’m wondering if it is the mind set on the Empire side. I don’t get nearly the amount of buffs that I received on the Republic side. Have yet to be healed on the empire side (not that this character has really needed it like my Republic character did). What I have seen is people seem more willing to step into a fight on a Empire side of things. If I am fighting an Elite or a Champion someone almost always lends a hand (something that annoys me even more than them snaking my nodes). That didn't happen very often on the Republic side except for when I was getting my butt handed to me.

You're assuming that there's no victim when there is... somewhere, someone is having their experience ruined because of you if you decide to act that way.

Interesting. I'd have thought you of all people would've had the least of issue with this. Aside obvious differences between subscription paid MMO versus free online forum, I see nothing fundamentally different about jackassery in a game and the good-natured tripping up of others for lulz at their expense. So with all due respect, where is it that you draw the line?

Edit: Also, I am on my own hit-list for when I'm dicking off. I would have thought self deprecation shows less hubris and malice? Certainly it seems to prevent others building resentment towards you for it.

Certainly worked for Nobunaga on XBL playing GTA4, and it worked for me on L4D... People would laugh so hard they couldn't play straight. Sometimes even get friend requests despite us being among the biggest jackasses.

We'll murder them all, amid laughter and merriment...except for the few we take home to experiment!

What I have seen is people seem more willing to step into a fight on a Empire side of things. If I am fighting an Elite or a Champion someone almost always lends a hand (something that annoys me even more than them snaking my nodes).

Wouldn't know why that would annoy you, to be honest. I tend to stay out of a fight unless players are in trouble, but when I do help, people usually stand around and wait for me to tackle the same boss I helped them with and then help me out. People randomly helping me defeat an elite or champion is rather nice for me. I much less want them to interfere when I'm tackling multiple enemies, as they tend to get the experience for one of them at least.

On a different note: There seems to be some problem with companion conversations. At least I have noticed that sometimes my companion has this icon saying (s)he wants to talk in private, but when in the cantina or the ship, no conversation can be initiated. Anyone encountered something similar?

Interesting. I'd have thought you of all people would've had the least of issue with this. Aside obvious differences between subscription paid MMO versus free online forum, I see nothing fundamentally different about jackassery in a game and the good-natured tripping up of others for lulz at their expense. So with all due respect, where is it that you draw the line?

Edit: Also, I am on my own hit-list for when I'm dicking off. I would have thought self deprecation shows less hubris and malice? Certainly it seems to prevent others building resentment towards you for it.

Certainly worked for Nobunaga on XBL playing GTA4, and it worked for me on L4D... People would laugh so hard they couldn't play straight. Sometimes even get friend requests despite us being among the biggest jackasses.

Well, depends on what you're meaning now, doesn't it? There's a vast difference between teasing among guildmates and keeping it 'in the family', being just crazy silly (which can be indeed hilarious) and doing something that fubars the game for random strangers (the last I wouldn't want done to me, so I won't do it to others). I think some of us are twitching about the last because we don't know what exactly your definition is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miltiades

On a different note: There seems to be some problem with companion conversations. At least I have noticed that sometimes my companion has this icon saying (s)he wants to talk in private, but when in the cantina or the ship, no conversation can be initiated. Anyone encountered something similar?

Yep, I've gotten that bug, too. I'm not sure why, either, but it is rather annoying. Not enough to make me gripe too much, just enough to make me go "well, that's kinda annoying..." when it happens.

From MST3K's spoof of "Hercules Unchained"--heard as Roman medic soldiers carry off an unconscious Greek Hercules on a 1950's Army green canvas stretcher: "Hi, we're IX-I-I. Did somebody dial IX-I-I?"

The easiest way to tell if they want to talk is just to right click on them. If they want to talk to you they will give you a line of dialogue that indicates as much, usually something along the lines of "Let's talk when we get back to the ship" or "I'd like to talk to you in private". The latter type will trigger a conversation in cantinas as well as the ship. For BHs, Mako's ship one is a little indistinct, something along the lines of "It's not safe here, we'll talk later".

When I'm playing solo, I like to play solo. I just like to gauge where I am from certain fights. It really isn't that big a deal, but I like the idea of knowing I'm able to tackle fights on my own. I know it is weird, but I even have been sending my companion off on crew stills before some fights. I’m just amazed at the difference between the Scoundrel and the Operative. I really wished now I would have gone with the Lethality tree instead of the Concealment tree.

I’ll also admit that I sometimes watch others fight Champions and Elites and I have stepped in to help, but only when they are on the verge of death and at least with my Scoundrel only with healing. While my Operative does have some healing skills, so far, she is a better killer than healer. I have jumped in helping a Sith take on a Champion. First I tried healing, when I figured out I couldn’t keep that up fast enough, I attacked.

Another thing funny was tonight what I wrote about the Empire not buffing became moot. I've been buffed by all the other classes, a couple more than once.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miltiades

On a different note: There seems to be some problem with companion conversations. At least I have noticed that sometimes my companion has this icon saying (s)he wants to talk in private, but when in the cantina or the ship, no conversation can be initiated. Anyone encountered something similar?

Had that constantly happen with my Wookiee, I just figured the Wookiee was a attention grabbing lair.

@ GTA: Very different kind of social crowd in an MMO. Also, what Jae said... it's funny with your friends and folks who know you, but random strangers aren't going to appreciate very much at all and someone's probably even going to report you for harassment over it.

After all people are just trying to play the game and don't really want some ******* they don't know suddenly start tripping them up while they're in the middle of a mission. Sure, they'd probably find it funny if they knew you and liked you, but you can't assume everyone is just going to be like "lulz" and think you're some kind of lovable jester.

I may have found the problem, although there's not way to be completely sure one way or another: I have been giving my companions a lot of gifts lately. Usually I give an average of two to four gifts at a given time. I have noticed that giving one gift makes the icon that shows a companion wants to talk appear while the gift following that makes it disappear. So the last time I gave gifts to Gault, I immediately stopped when he wanted to talk and he talked! There's a chance this is a coincidence, but you may want to keep an eye out anyway.

No, it has nothing to do with gifts. The icon comes and goes even if you stand there doing nothing. It's just borked. Like I said, just right click on them and they'll tell you if they want to talk or not.

By the way, a good portion of the conversations are gated by story progression, so even though in theory you should open up a new convo every 1,000 pts or so of affection, they won't actually trigger until you reach the appropriate point in your class quest. So you could grind a companion up to 10,000 affection at level 1, but you wouldn't get all the convos until their pre-allotted times (although you would get several back-to-back at various points).

Okay going for the stupidest question ever...When someone says the are doing dailies and then role-playing their character, what does that mean? I really thought role-playing was just playing the character in normal quest. Not making the choices based on my opinion, but based on what I think the character would do. Like if I was an imperial, I wouldn't let Republic force sensitives live, but my character is lightside, so she would. So what is role-playing at level 50 after someone finished the dailies? No, it wasn't anyone in the either guild that told me that.

You probably need to ask the person directly, as there is a lot of ground covered by what people consider RPing. At this point in TOR, I would suggest the likelihood that it involves a group of like-minded individuals standing around using ye olde fashioned text descriptions of what their character is doing in some given scenario that has been agreed upon, perhaps with the odd emote thrown in where appropriate. And maybe some duels or, if it is cross-factional, even some actual PVP as well. These would be your "hardcore" RP types. What they are interested in doesn't necessarily constitute what most people would consider actually playing the game.

In fact, given the way you phrased it as two distinct activities, I suspect that is exactly the scenario. They are grinding some dailies for credits/commendations as quickly as possible, then getting back to what they see as the core part of the game for them, interacting with others in an RP fashion. If that is the case, it's interesting they are doing so on a PVE server rather than an RP server. One would suspect it was because that was where their guild was pre-allocated to and/or where their friends ended up.

What you describe is a perfectly valid form of RPing of course. I guess that would be your "mainstream" RPing. The problem with it that the hardcore types have is that it is completely constrained by the story Bioware has put in place, with their proclivity for non-choices. If you want true freedom, you have to break out of those shackles. Imagine what they are doing as a traditional pen & paper RPG session but done via text chat.

If your quest log get to full, too many heroics, flashpoints or space missions in your to do list can really mess you up. Gets get so bad that you can't even talk to companions. Now I just delete the heroics and space missions, not like I can't get them back again. I don't have that problem when I play in groups, because we do the Heroics and Flashpoints.

Hrmm they must have changed the message. I seem to recall in beta it saying something specific about the quest log being full. Although I only ever saw it the one time, as I pretty much always do quests as I get them rather than stockpiling them.

It would have been nice had they left it alone. Quest log is full is so much easier to figure out what you are doing wrong. With my smuggler it didn't catch up with me until the end of Hoth, but after that the Heroics and Flashpoints added up. I didn't figure out what was wrong until I got to the next planet, so I had to go back to Hoth to get the missions I missed.

You probably need to ask the person directly, as there is a lot of ground covered by what people consider RPing. At this point in TOR, I would suggest the likelihood that it involves a group of like-minded individuals standing around using ye olde fashioned text descriptions of what their character is doing in some given scenario that has been agreed upon, perhaps with the odd emote thrown in where appropriate. And maybe some duels or, if it is cross-factional, even some actual PVP as well. These would be your "hardcore" RP types. What they are interested in doesn't necessarily constitute what most people would consider actually playing the game.

yep, I RP, and the game story is just a leveling process, I dont actually figure my own story into the Bioware story, so I mainly stay in Character outside of questing and PVP... well, I did anyway hehe.

I've had a few people ask me where the respec vendor is on the fleet, so I copypasta'd a quick map, note the map is for the Republic Fleet, though I imagine the Imperial Fleet Respec vendor is in the same general area (combat training room). Also Pubs, the guys you're looking for is an ugly purple rodian, he wont be marked as a vendor on your map, you'll just have to talk to him.

"Women are like sunsetsÖ theyíre beautiful, but there will be a different one tomorrow." - Gilder

I've finished Corellia with my Mercenary just yesterday and am nearing the "'endgame' content when I arrived on Ilum. I've been looking for some guides on certain endgame content on the 'net, but none are really clear. Specifically, I would like to get my hands on the Mercenary's Columni Gear. I know it involves Hard Mode flashpoints and commendations of some sort (?), but can somebody explain to me in easy terms what I need for gear like that, what I have to do for it, how good my gear needs to be for these hard modes, etc?

First you get the dailies, then you get the Hard Mode Flashpoints, then you get the operations.

At this point you should be in as much orange gear as you can be, then start doing the quests for daily commendations (on Republic side the quests are on Belsavis & Ilum). With these dailies you can get armorings, barrels/hilts, mods and an earpiece.
You don't have to be fully decked out depending on the other 3 in your party to start running Hard Mode flashpoints, but it helps. Each one will drop a certain Columi piece, and you will get some Columi & Tionese [sic?] commendations (don't forget to pick up your daily & weekly quests). Trade these commendations to vendors of your class on the fleet.
Once you get some of that (again, depends on your skill & your party on how much you **have** to have) you can start running operations. The bosses in the ops will drop "assigned" loot in normal mode, and regular "roll for" loot in hard mode.

The breakdown is as such, in order of worst to best:
orange with items from dailies slotted -- from dailies
Tionese -- from commendations from HM FPs and ops
Columi -- from HM FP, ops & commendations
Rikata -- from hard mode ops

I can run some dailies with you Miltiades if you want. I haven't played for about a week as I was getting bored with the Inquisitor. The Merc and Jugg have been twiddling their thumbs on the fleet since hitting 50 weeks ago waiting for someone else to catch up. If you are keen just send me a PM with when you'll be on. Probably going to be finalising some ME2 Sheps in the meantime.

So I’m going to give my main problems and see if anyone has some advice.

1. Energy runs out in longer fights. How I solved this in solo was to fire my default blaster attack until I built up energy enough to use heal again. I would usually do this in combination with a flash grenade or dirty kick in order to buy myself a few moments. Diagnostic Scan also works here for building up energy, the problem is it takes forever to cast and provides very little healing. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=281921

Cool Head which is the best way to regenerate energy has a 2 min cooldown. So after I use up the energy from it, sometime I still have 1 min to wait for Cool Head to be an option.

I’ve been told not to attack in combat, but I’m thinking that means do not attack with attacks that take energy. Is it alright for me to use the default attack that restores energy? Could that cause me to pull aggro from the tank? I wouldn’t think the default attack would draw more aggro than a big heal, but I don’t know.

2. Second is a problem, but there really isn’t a solution. About the only heals I have while moving is Slow-Release Medpac (which only heals a moderate about of health over 18 seconds and cost 15 energy) and Kolto Cloud (which will heal 4 target, up to 30 meters away but only within a 10 meter radius). This one seems to work, but it is very under powered even with Healing Hand, Smuggler Technology and Homegrown Pharmacology. So my problem is how to stay out of harms way, but within the range of everyone in the group while also keeping them all within my line of sight. If they are out of sight (behind cover or up a ramp), I cannot heal? Best I can do is cast Kolto Cloud and hope they are with 10 meters of whoever I targeted.

3. Is it bad form to leave in the middle of a fight? No that isn’t what I mean, but when I suddenly get aggro, can I disappear to get the mob off my butt? I know I have the ability, but isn’t that going to suddenly put the mob on someone else? If I had already used Surrender (30s cooldown) and used the shield probe (not sure of correct name for a smuggler, but it is the same as the imp agent), should I use Disappearing act and then reappear to start back to healing? Disappearing Act does have a 3 min cooling off period, so I like to save it for the in-combat revive that sawbones has.

4. Anything else anyone can think of? Jeff, Mav, Kus and Lynk have been really nice about it, but I know I suck at this so far. It is the first time I played a MMO and the first time I’ve done a healer, so if anyone has any ideas I would appreciate them. I hate to let my friends down even in a make believe world.

Loved the smuggler story and I have really had fun playing her, but from what I have read today I may have really gimped myself by choosing that class as a healer. Should have done like Lynk and did more planning/research before the game was even out.

From everything I've read today, if you are going healer, Jedi Sage is the way to go. They are saying even trooper healer is a better fit. Which I cannot believe that is the case.

Edit one more question: With my Wookiee I almost constantly had Upper Hand in battles. While playing in a group, I only seem to get upper hand when I spam slow-release medpacs. What is great about Upper Hand for a smuggler is then I can use Emergency Medpac that cost no energy only upper hand. Left out the question: Is there a way for other class in the group to give me upper hand beyond killing an enemy?

Its small, but used in place of the aforementioned blaster attacks might make up for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

Cool Head which is the best way to regenerate energy has a 2 min cooldown. So after I use up the energy from it, sometime I still have 1 min to wait for Cool Head to be an option.

Its not drastic, but you also have pugnacity (i think is the name/spelling)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

Iíve been told not to attack in combat, but Iím thinking that means do not attack with attacks that take energy. Is it alright for me to use the default attack that restores energy? Could that cause me to pull aggro from the tank? I wouldnít think the default attack would draw more aggro than a big heal, but I donít know.

So my problem is how to stay out of harms way, but within the range of everyone in the group while also keeping them all within my line of sight. If they are out of sight (behind cover or up a ramp), I cannot heal? Best I can do is cast Kolto Cloud and hope they are with 10 meters of whoever I targeted.

I think your tank should be keeping things off you. If you are getting hit then you need to call out "get these things off me!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

No that isnít what I mean, but when I suddenly get aggro, can I disappear to get the mob off my butt? I know I have the ability, but isnít that going to suddenly put the mob on someone else?

To be blunt, this is the tanks concern. Your concern is keeping everyone healed and you have to be alive to do so I think if the above mentioned suggestion for the tank to regain control of the fight fails, going invis is a viable option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

Disappearing Act does have a 3 min cooling off period, so I like to save it for the in-combat revive that sawbones has.

Just a heads up for operations, all healers (or just sages?) also have battle res, and they share one cool down, so be sure to confirm who is getting res'ed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

4. Anything else anyone can think of?

As I said at the top, I'm not the absolute best to give advise, but I would say to tweak your spell rotation. I try to make sure everyone has HoTs (slow release) on, especially since that gives upper hand, spam medscan and throw the larger heals as needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

Loved the smuggler story and I have really had fun playing her, but from what I have read today I may have really gimped myself by choosing that class as a healer.

This makes me very excited to get the last 13levels on my Sawbones! I really enjoy the underdog classes. Speaking from a developers point of view, I really don't think it is even possible for them to be as terrible as people say, I just assume most people want to play the click to win classes. So personally I would stick it out BUT, you can always re-roll, leveling is not that difficult.

Looks like a very solid build. The only difference between that and mine is I didn't put any points into "anatomy lessons" (reduces cost of atk spells) as I don't attack, and "scar tissue" (reduces dmg taken) as I don't plan to get hit. Instead, I put the points in "survivors scars" & "no holds barred"

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

From everything I've read today, if you are going healer, Jedi Sage is the way to go. They are saying even trooper healer is a better fit. Which I cannot believe that is the case.

Sage does have its benefits, I've heard their best quality is their AoE heal. Personally I will never roll one because they have been titled the best. I don't have any experience with trooper healers over level 30 so I can't comment there.

I personally see that as a challenge But I tend to play the "crappy" class.

I took it as a challenge on solo mode too, but now the crappiness is spilling into group side. In solo I got pretty good, towards the end I was getting through battles even out of cut scenes without trouble. I sure the same thing will happen here after practice, but the problem is this practice is not only getting me killed, but others.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snommism

IMO, you should be healing 100% of the time when in a group. Unless you are consistently wiping to a boss' enrage timer because the party just isn't putting out enough DPS.

The problem usually isn’t the boss, the problem usually is everything else usually takes notice of me at some point during the battle, especially turrets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snommism

Its not drastic, but you also have pugnacity (i think is the name/spelling)

Thanks…I haven’t been using pugnacity properly at all. All I knew is it took consumed an Upper Hand, never had a problem with energy in solo mode so I just forgot about Pugnacity. I can see now that while it is true it is not drastic, it will be of great use in groups. Thank you…

Quote:

Originally Posted by snommism

I think your tank should be keeping things off you. If you are getting hit then you need to call out "get these things off me!"

I’m not blaming the tank. He seems to do a really good job at keep things off of me. The DPS seem to be doing a good job of killing to when they are not dying because I’m having problems with my job. I know some of it is my gear, haven’t done enough to upgrade my gear above from the gear I had at the end of the main quest. Got my first great piece on the last hard flashpoint, so I hope equipment helps. Maybe I should be doing flashpoints on the normal setting, but I have to do what the group is doing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snommism

Looks like a very solid build. The only difference between that and mine is I didn't put any points into "anatomy lessons" (reduces cost of atk spells) as I don't attack, and "scar tissue" (reduces dmg taken) as I don't plan to get hit. Instead, I put the points in "survivors scars" & "no holds barred"

From my reading today, I am thinking about giving those spec a go. Only reason I’ve been holding off is in case I needed to do dailies alone. Need some more guild member at 50.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snommism

I hope that helps some and good luck!

If nothing else it got me to relook at Pugnacity which I think will help with one of my biggest problems. Again thank you. It really sucks to be a healer to set there watching someone die because of a lack of energy hoping someone will get you Upper Hand before the end.

I took it as a challenge on solo mode too, but now the crappiness is spilling into group side.

Yeah this is where I can't help as I've yet to do group on my healer

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

The problem usually isnít the boss, the problem usually is everything else usually takes notice of me at some point during the battle, especially turrets.

I meant that's the only time I've asked healers to add to the dps, when we couldn't beat the enrage timer on a boss because we weren't hitting hard enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

I know some of it is my gear, havenít done enough to upgrade my gear above from the gear I had at the end of the main quest. Got my first great piece on the last hard flashpoint, so I hope equipment helps. Maybe I should be doing flashpoints on the normal setting, but I have to do what the group is doing.

Normal mode flashpoints won't do you any good after 50
You should be in as much orange gear as you can, filled with as much daily bits as you can (see my post a few posts up).

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimartin

If nothing else it got me to relook at Pugnacity which I think will help with one of my biggest problems. Again thank you. It really sucks to be a healer to set there watching someone die because of a lack of energy hoping someone will get you Upper Hand before the end.

Glad I could help with that at least I know I don't have extensive exp with endgame sawbones but I am familiar with the class up to 37 (and beyond in theory) (and I do have a lot of endgame groups exp).

I forgot to mention the first post, and almost forgot again. We do have a level 50 sawbones in guild, within 24hours of hitting 50 she took part in a successful (normal mode) EV run (I wasn't there so I don't know if she got carried by the other healer (8 person team)). We're about to (literally minutes from now) run hard mode EV now so I'll try to keep my eye on her and let you know.

If you are getting attacked then blame Lynk. It's the tank's job to hold aggro.

Healers have never interested me much, so I don't really have much of anything to offer in the way of advice. However, the one thing I have seen repeatedly stressed by long time healers discussing strategy is to not over-heal (i.e. you don't need to heal someone back up to 100% to be doing your job). I've seen various forums posts covering recommended rotations and strategies for healers. Check out the Smuggler forum on the official site - I'm sure there will be something there to help.